Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti, June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an Italian Americansinger, filmactor, and comedian. He was one of the most famous music artists in the 1950s and 1960s. His hit singles included the songs "Memories Are Made Of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "Mambo Italiano", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head".

Background information

Birth name

Dino Paul Crocetti

Born

June 7, 1917, Steubenville, Ohio, United States

Died

December 25, 1995, Beverly Hills, California, United States (aged 78)

Genre(s)

Big band, Swing

Years active

1940–1989

Label(s)

CapitolReprise

Biography

Early life

Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio in the Pittsburgh Tri-State region. His parents were Gaetano Crocetti, a barber from Abruzzi, Italy, and Angela Barra, an Italian American from Fernwood, Ohio. He spoke only Italian until age five. The traces of Italian are perhaps what lent a slight Southern drawl to Martin's speaking voice.

Martin dropped out of school in the tenth grade because, in his own words, he thought that he was smarter than the teachers. He delivered bootleg liquor, served as a speakeasy croupier, wrote crafty anecdotes and was a blackjack dealer, worked in a steel mill and boxed as welterweight. At the age of 15, he was a boxer who billed himself as "Kid Crocett" (Kro-Shey). From his prizefighting years, Martin earned a broken nose (later fixed), a permanently split lip, and many sets of broken knuckles (as a result of not being able to afford the tape used to wrap boxers' hands). He won 1 of his 12 bouts. The prize money was small. For a while he roomed with Sonny King, who like Martin, was just starting out in show biz and had little money. Martin and King held bare knuckle matches in their apartment, fighting until one of them was knocked out; people paid to watch the sight.

Eventually, Martin gave up boxing. He worked as a roulette stickman and croupier in an illegal casino located behind a tobacco shop where he had started out as a stock boy. At the same time, he sang with local bands. Billing himself as "Dino Martini" (after the then-famous Metropolitan Opera tenor, Nino Martini), he got his first break working for the Ernie McKay Orchestra. He performed in a crooning style heavily influenced by Bing Crosby and Harry Mills (of the Mills Brothers), among others. In the early 1940s, he started singing for bandleader Sammy Watkins, at which time Sammy suggested he change his name to Dean Martin.

In October of 1941, Martin married Elizabeth Anne McDonald, and during their marriage (ended by divorce in 1949), they had four children. Martin worked for various bands throughout the early 1940s, more on looks and personality than vocal ability until he developed his own smooth singing style. Martin famously flopped at the Riobamba when he succeeded Frank Sinatra there in 1943, but it was the setting for the two men's introduction.

To earn extra money, Martin repeatedly sold 10% shares of his earnings for upfront cash. Martin apparently did this so often that he found he had sold over 100% of his income. Such was the power of his charm that most of his lenders forgave his debts and remained friends.

After being drafted into the United States Army during World War II, Martin served a year (1944-45) in Akron, Ohio. He was then classified 4-F (possibly due to a double hernia; Jerry Lewis referred to the surgery Martin needed for this in his autobiography) and was discharged.

By 1946, Martin was doing relatively well, but he was still little more than an East Coast nightclub singer with an all-too-common style, similar to that of Bing Crosby. He could draw audiences to the clubs he played, but he inspired none of fanatic popularity enjoyed by Sinatra.

Mafia connections

A biography on Martin entitled Dean Martin: King Of The Road by Michael Freedland, alleges he had links to the Mafia in his earlier career. Martin was allegedly given help with his early singing career by mob bosses who owned saloons in Chicago. In return, he performed in shows hosted by these bosses later when he was a star. These authors suggest that Martin felt little loyalty to or sympathy for the Mafia and that he only did such people small favors if it were of little inconvenience to him. Reportedly, the FBI's bugs once picked up a mafioso making plans to injure or kill Martin because of a perceived lack of gratitude. Another book, The Animal in Hollywood by John L. Smith , depicted Dean Martin's long-time friendship with Mafia mobsters Johnny Roselli and Anthony Fiato. Anthony Fiato (aka "the Animal") did Martin many favors, such as getting back money from two swindlers who had cheated Betty Martin, Dean's ex-wife, out of thousands of dollars of her alimony money.

Teaming with Jerry Lewis

Martin attracted some attention from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, but a Hollywood contract was not forthcoming. He appeared destined to remain on the nightclub circuit until he met a young comic named Jerry Lewis at the Glass Hat Club in New York, where both men were performing. Martin and Lewis formed a fast friendship which led to their participation in each other's acts and ultimately forming a music-comedy team. Given their zany antics, more than a few people dubbed them "The Organ Grinder and the Monkey."

Martin and Lewis' official debut together occurred at Atlantic City's 500 Club on July 24, 1946, and they were not a hit. The owner, Skinny D'Amato, warned them that if they didn't come up with a better act for their second show later that same night, they would be fired. Huddling together out in the alley behind the club, Lewis and Martin agreed to go for broke, to throw out the pre-scripted gags that hadn't worked and to basically just improvise their way through the act. Dean sang some songs, and Jerry came out dressed as a busboy, dropping plates and more or less making a shambles of both Martin's performance and the club's sense of decorum. They did slapstick, reeled off old vaudeville jokes, and did whatever else popped into their heads at the moment. This time, the audience doubled over in laughter. Their success at the 500 led to a series of well-paying engagements up and down the Eastern seaboard, culminating with a triumphant run at New York's Copacabana. Club patrons were convulsed by the act, which consisted primarily of Lewis interrupting and heckling Martin while he was trying to sing, and ultimately the two of them chasing each other around the stage and having as much fun as possible. The secret, they have both said, is that they essentially ignored the audience and played to one another.

A radio series commenced in 1949, the same year that Martin and Lewis were signed by Paramount producer Hal Wallis as comedy relief for the film My Friend Irma.

Martin was thrilled to be out of New York City, a place he had developed a lifelong hatred for. He liked it that California, because of its earthquakes, had few tall buildings. Suffering as he did from claustrophobia, Martin almost never used elevators, and having to climb multiple flights of stairs in Manhattan's skyscrapers was not his idea of fun.

Their agent, Abby Greshler, negotiated for them one of Hollywood's best deals: although they received only a modest $75,000 between them for their films with Wallis, Martin and Lewis were free to do one outside film a year, which they would co-produce through their own York Productions. They also had complete control of their club, record, radio and television appearances, and it was through these endeavors that Martin and Lewis earned millions of dollars.

Although there had been a number of hugely successful film teams before, Hollywood had not seen anything like Martin and Lewis. The fun they had together set them apart from everything else being done at the time. Both were talented entertainers, but the fact that they were such good friends on and off stage took their act to a new level.

Martin and Lewis were the hottest act in America during the early '50s, but the pace and the pressure took its toll. Most critics of the time underestimated Dean's contribution to the team, as he usually had the thankless job of the straight man, and his singing had yet to develop into his unique style of his later years. Most critics praised Lewis, and while they admitted that Martin was the best partner he could have, most of them claimed that Lewis was the real talent of the team and could succeed with anyone. It is worth noting that Lewis always praised his partner, and while he appreciated the attention he was getting, he has always said with complete conviction that the act would never have worked without Martin. In the book Dean & Me he calls Martin one of the great comic geniuses of all time. But the harsh comments from the critics, as well as his frustration with the formulaic similarity of the Martin & Lewis movies which producer Hal Willis stubbornly refused to change, led to Martin's dissatisfaction with the team. He put less and less enthusiasm into their work, leading to escalating arguments with Lewis. The two finally couldn't possibly work together, especially when Martin told his partner that he was "nothing to me but a fucking dollar sign." The act broke up in 1956, ten years to the day after the first official teaming.

But splitting up their partnership was not easy. It took months for lawyers to work out the details of terminating many of their club bookings, their television contracts, and the dissolution of York Productions. Through it all, there was intense public pressure for them to stay together. Dean tired of being second fiddle to Jerry's antics, as when Martin tried to sing a song and Lewis poured buckets of cold water over his head or slapped him. It took its toll and Dean had had enough.

Lewis had no trouble maintaining his film popularity alone, but Martin, unfairly regarded by much of the public and the motion picture industry as something of a spare tire to his former partner, found the going hard; his first solo film, Ten Thousand Bedrooms, was a box office failure. He was still popular as a singer, but with rock and roll surging to the fore, the era of the pop crooner appeared to be waning, and it looked like Martin's fate was to be limited to nightclubs and to be remembered as Jerry Lewis's former partner.

Solo career

Never totally comfortable in films, Martin still wanted to be known as a real actor. Though offered a fraction of his former salary to co-star in the war drama The Young Lions (1957), he eagerly agreed so that he could learn from and appear with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. Tony Randall already had the part, but talent agency MCA realized that with this movie, Martin would become a triple threat: they could make money from his work in night clubs, movies, and records. Martin replaced Randall in one of the best dramatic roles of the decade and the film turned out to be the cornerstone of Martin's spectacular comeback. By the mid '60s, he was a top movie, recording, and nightclub attraction, even as Lewis's film career rapidly declined. Martin was also acclaimed for his performance as Dude in Rio Bravo (1959 film) (1959), directed by Howard Hawks and also starring John Wayne and singer Ricky Nelson. He teamed up again with Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), where they were somewhat unconvincingly cast as brothers.

Martin played a nightmare variation of his own smoothly womanizing persona as Vegas singer "Dino" in Billy Wilder's adult comedy Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) with Kim Novak, and he was never above poking sly fun at his image in films such as the Matt Helmspyspoofs of the 1960s.

As a singer, Martin copied the styles of Bing Crosby and Perry Como until he arrived at his own and he could hold his own in countless duets over the decades with Sinatra and Crosby. Like The Beatles at their height, he couldn't read music, but he recorded more than 100 albums and 600 songs. His signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody", knocked The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" out of the number-one spot in 1964 (In the USA only). Elvis Presley was said to have been influenced by Martin, and patterned "Love Me Tender" after his style. Martin, like Elvis, was also heavily influenced by country music. By 1965, nearly all of Martin's albums, such as "The Hit Sound Of Dean Martin", "Welcome To My World" and "Gentle On My Mind" were composed of popular country and western songs made famous by artists like Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens. Martin hosted country performers on his TV show, and was even named "Man Of the Year" by the Country Music Association in 1966. Remarkably, "Ain't That a Kick in the Head," a song Martin performed in Ocean's Eleven that never became a hit at the time, has enjoyed a spectacular revival in the media and pop culture in the mid-2000s (which can be traced back to it's usage in 1993's A Bronx Tale).

For three decades, Martin was among the most popular nightclub acts in Las Vegas. Martin himself was one of the smoothest comics around, benefiting from the decade of raucous comedy with Lewis. Though often thought of as a ladies' man, Martin spent a lot of time with his family; as second wife Jeannie put it, prior to the couple's divorce, "He was home every night for dinner."

The 1960s and 1970s

In 1965, Martin launched his weekly NBC comedy-variety series, The Dean Martin Show, which exploited his public image as a lazy, carefree boozer. It was there that he perfected his famous laid-back persona of the half-drunk crooner suavely hitting on beautiful women with hilarious remarks that would get anyone else slapped, and making snappy if slurred remarks about fellow celebrities during his famous roasts. Even though critics complained Dean was the epitome of sloth, few entertainers worked as hard to make what they were doing look so easy.

The TV show was a huge hit. Dean prided himself on memorizing whole scripts -- not merely his own lines. He disliked rehearsing because he firmly believed his best performances were his first performances. The show's loose format often prompted comedic, quick-witted improvisation from Dean and the rest of the cast. On occasion, he made remarks in Italian, some of them obscenties that brought angry mail from offended, Italian-speaking viewers. This prompted a battle between Martin and NBC censors, who insisted on more scrutiny of the show's content. As a result, the show was often in the Top Ten. Martin, deeply appreciative of the efforts of the show's producer, his friend Greg Garrison, later made a handshake deal giving Garrison, a pioneer TV producer in the 1950s, 50% ownership of the show.

Despite Martin's reputation as a heavy drinker — a reputation perpetuated via his vanity license plates reading 'DRUNKY' — he was remarkably self-disciplined. He was often the first to call it a night, and when not on tour or on a film location liked to go home, see his wife, and play with his children. It has been claimed that Martin was usually sipping apple juice (not liquor) most of the time onstage. He borrowed the lovable-drunk shtick from Joe E. Lewis, but his convincing portrayals of heavy boozers in Some Came Running and Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo led to unsubstantiated claims of alcoholism. More often than not, Martin's idea of a good time was playing golf or watching television, particularly westerns -- not staying with Rat Pack friends Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. into the wee hours of the morning.

By the early 1970s, Martin seemed to have the Midas touch. The Dean Martin Show was still earning solid ratings, and although he was no longer a Top 40 hitmaker, his record albums continued to sell well. His name on a marquee could guarantee casinos and nightclubs a standing-room-only crowd. He found a way to make his passion for golf profitable by offering his own signature line of golf balls. Shrewd investments had greatly increased Martin's personal wealth; at the time of his death, Martin was reportedly the single largest minority shareholder of RCA stock. Martin even managed to cure himself of his claustrophobia by locking himself in the elevator of a tall building and riding up and down for hours until he was no longer panic-stricken.

Despite his enormous success, Martin retreated from show business by the early 1970s. The final (1973-74) season of his variety show would be retooled into one of celebrity roasts, requiring less of Martin's involvement. After the show's cancellation, NBC continued to air the Dean Martin Celebrity Roast format in a series of TV specials through 1984. In those 11 years, Dean and his panel of pals successfully ridiculed, embarrassed and made fun of legendary stars like, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin himself, to name a few. For nearly a decade, Dean had recorded as many as four albums a year for Reprise records. That stopped in November of 1974, when Martin recorded his final Reprise album - "Once In A While", released in 1978. His last recording sessions were for Warner Brothers Records. An album titled "The Nashville Sessions" was released in 1983, and a follow up single "Drinking Champagne" came in 1985. The 1975 film Mr. Ricco marked Martin's final starring role, and Martin limited his live performances to Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Martin seemed to be suffering a mid-life crisis. In 1972, he filed for divorce from his second wife, Jeannie. A week later, his business partnership with the Riviera casino was dissolved amid reports of the casino's refusal to agree to Martin's request to perform only once a night. He was quickly snapped up by the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and was signed to a three-picture deal with MGM Studios. Less than a month after his second marriage had been legally dissolved, Martin married 26 year-old Catherine Hawn on April 25, 1973. They divorced November 10, 1976. He was also briefly engaged to Gail Renshaw, Miss USA 1969, and later dated actress Phyllis Davis.

Eventually, Martin reconciled with Jeannie, though they never remarried. He also made a public reconciliation with Jerry Lewis on Lewis' Labor DayMuscular Dystrophy Association telethon in 1976. Frank Sinatra shocked Lewis and the world by bringing Martin out on stage. As Martin and Lewis hugged and smiled, the audience erupted in cheers and the phone banks lit up, resulting in one of the telethon's most profitable years. Lewis reported the event was one of the three most memorable of his life. Lewis brought down the house when he quipped, "So, you working?" Martin, playing drunk, replied that he was "at the Meggum" -- this reference to the MGM Grand Hotel convulsed Lewis. This, along with the death of Martin's son Dean Paul Martin a few years later, helped to bring the two men together. They maintained a quiet but deep friendship but never performed together again.

Later years

Rat Pack Album cover, early 1980s.

On December 1, 1983 while gambling at the Golden Nugget casino in Atlantic City, Martin and Sinatra intimidated the dealer and several employees into breaking New Jersey laws by making the dealer deal the cards by hand instead of by a shoe, as is required by law. Although Sinatra and Martin were implicated as the cause of the violation, neither were fined by the New Jersey Gaming Commission. The Golden Nugget, on the other hand, received a $25,000 fine and four employees including the dealer, a supervisor and pit boss were suspended from their jobs without pay. It's said that Sinatra and Martin picked up the tab for the suspended employees' pay.

Martin returned to films briefly with appearances in the two all-star Cannonball Run movies, but being a movie star no longer excited him and he found life on the set to be more tedious than ever. He also stepped back into the recording studio and scored a minor hit single with his version of "Since I Met You, Baby" and made his first music video, which appeared on MTV.

Martin never claimed to be an intellectual and perhaps was telling the truth when he told an interviewer he had only read one book in his life. It was the children's story Black Beauty. In his 2005 book about Martin, Dean and Me: A Love Story, Jerry Lewis notes that Martin was especially fond of comic books, but would always send someone else out to buy them for him.

Decline

Martin's world began to crumble on March 21, 1987, when his son Dean Paul was killed when his jet fighter crashed while flying with the Air National Guard. A much-touted tour with Davis and Sinatra in 1988 sputtered, with Martin's heart just not into it. On one occasion, he infuriated Sinatra when he turned to him and muttered "Frank, what the hell are we doing up here?" Martin, who always responded best to a club audience, felt lost in the huge stadiums they were performing in (at Sinatra's insistence), and he was not the least bit interested in drinking until dawn after their performances.

Martin never completely recovered from losing his son, and was suffering from emphysema. In September 1993, he was diagnosed with lung cancer which ultimately led to his death. He kept his private life to himself, emerging briefly for a public celebration of his 77th birthday with friends and family.

He had been told he needed surgery on his kidneys and liver to prolong his life, but he refused. It was widely reported, though never confirmed, that Martin had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1991.

At his side in his last years was ex-wife Jeannie (Bieggers) Martin, whom he had divorced years earlier. The pair became close again, although they resisted suggestions that they wed and seemed content to just be together.

Martin died of respiratory failure, at home on Christmas morning 1995. Although widely believed, an error perpetuated by Jeannie herself, was that she was at his side at his death. However, Jeannie was giving her annual Christmas party into the late hours of the night and therefore was at her home with her daughter, Deana until about 4 a.m., with Dean having died about 3:15 am. Deana has attested to this on many occasions, including in her biography of her father. The lights of the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed in his honor. In 2005, Las Vegas renamed Industrial Road as "Dean Martin Drive".

Martin received a gold record in 2004 for his fastest-selling album ever, which also hit the iTunes Top 10.

Popular culture

There was talk of a film biography called "Dino", with Tom Hanks in the title role (Hanks previously portrayed the singer in an episode of Saturday Night Live) and Martin Scorsese directing. But as of 2007, the project has yet to happen.

Martin was portrayed by Joe Mantegna in an HBO movie about Sinatra and Martin titled The Rat Pack.

British actor Jeremy Northam also portrayed the late entertainer in a made-for-TV movie called Martin and Lewis, alongside Will & Grace's Sean Hayes as Jerry Lewis.

For the week ending December 23, 2006, the Dean Martin and Martina McBride duet of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" reached #7 on the R&R AC chart. It also went to #36 on the R&R Country chart.

The last time Martin had a song this high in the charts was in 1965, with the song "I Will", which reached #10 on the Pop chart.

A Budweiser commercial that premiered during Super Bowl XLI featured Martin's "Ain't it a Kick in the Head."

More than 40 years after knocking the Beatles out of the #1 spot, Martin continues to be popular with music fans. Movies such as Goodfellas, Casino, Swingers, Out of Sight, L.A. Confidential, A Bronx Tale, Moonstruck, and Payback, not to mention TV's "The Sopranos" and "The West Wing" as well as commercials for the 2005 Nissan Altima, Microsoft, Marriott Hotels, Carl's Jr. and Heineken all feature Martin songs.

Capitol's 2004 collection "Dino: The Essential Dean Martin" features some of Martin's best recordings. Billboard's "Hotshot Debut" was the week's highest-charting new entry, and has sold more briskly than any previous Martin recording, going gold within months and to platinum status within a year. It also hit the Top 5 on Apple's iTunes Music Store album chart. As Bill Zehme observed in a 2004 Playboy profile, "Dean provides smooth, winking succor to generations anew."

Writer/Actress Jacqueline Susann claimed that Dean Martin provided inspiration for the character of "Tony Polar" in "Valley of the Dolls".

Marriages and children

Martin was married three times. Martin's first wife, Betty McDonald, tried by all accounts to be a good wife and mother to their four children, but her efforts were ultimately undone by her alcoholism. Subsequent to their divorce, Martin gained custody of their children.

Martin's second wife was Jeanne Biegger. Their marriage lasted twenty-four years (1949-1973) and produced three children.